


These Days That Shook Our Lives

by handschuhmaus



Category: The Hunt for Red October (1990)
Genre: Cold War, Meta, Sketches, Tarot
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-10-23
Updated: 2019-10-23
Packaged: 2020-12-24 14:15:59
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 7
Words: 2,030
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21100820
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/handschuhmaus/pseuds/handschuhmaus
Summary: These are tarot card sketches and design commentary for cards chosen to comprise a seven card horseshoe spread. I am not terrifically well informed about tarot, and not the best artist, but I hope you enjoy. (additionally, some things were drawn without a reference, partially because my internet went out for a bit while I was drawing)The title is a riff off that of a history of the revolution which put the USSR into power,Ten Days That Shook The World. While, in-universe, this with the right time scale would be appropriate, this tarot spread is more personal, hence "Our World"This is probably a spread directed at Jack.Please note that viewing this without the work skin will result in most cards being sideways and quite possibly cropped, although the alignment with the work skin is not wonderful.





	1. Past: Death

**Author's Note:**

  * For [simplecoffee](https://archiveofourown.org/users/simplecoffee/gifts).

> These are tarot card sketches and design commentary for cards chosen to comprise a seven card horseshoe spread. I am not terrifically well informed about tarot, and not the best artist, but I hope you enjoy. (additionally, some things were drawn without a reference, partially because my internet went out for a bit while I was drawing)
> 
> The title is a riff off that of a history of the revolution which put the USSR into power, _Ten Days That Shook The World_. While, in-universe, this with the right time scale would be appropriate, this tarot spread is more personal, hence "Our World"
> 
> This is probably a spread directed at Jack.
> 
> **Please note that viewing this without the work skin will result in most cards being sideways and quite possibly cropped, although the alignment with the work skin is not wonderful.**

The card Death is sometimes said to represent a transition, and a paring down to basics. Here the design focuses on symbols applicable to Marko Ramius, he who quoted the Bhagavad Gita, and also Oppenheimer (physicist who worked on the atom bomb, which theme is revisited in card 6, the Sun), saying "I am become Death, destroyer of worlds."

In the foreground is a doorway, and [there should be--forgot to draw it!] the demand (in Russian) "Open up!" Solzhenitsyn is not the only one to note that the Soviet secret police (at various times called the Cheka and later, at the time of _Hunt for Red October_, the KGB) liked to show up in the night, for the greatest surprise to their quarry and less attention of neighbors drawn to them. Despite the fact that they are no longer exactly what Marko is fleeing, and he realizes he is apt instead to call destruction down on his ship from his erstwhile colleagues, the image seemed fitting.

And outside the sky and most of the imagined background represent winter in Siberia, both a potent weapon against internal and external foes of Russia, and a formidable and deadly force of nature in its own right, fitting in with the motif of being snatched away in the night but also what happens should one stray from the expected, established course of action at the North Sea sub bases, and venture off into the cold.

But this vision is underlaid not with snow but with the indiscriminate stormy sea, a fear Jack Ryan knows as well, but faces courageously. This is Marko Ramius' territory, one still potentially deadly to anyone, and the ground on which this great transition took place.

Its place in the seven-card spread is representing the past, and death haunts the fateful voyage of the _Red October_, as well as the flight fitting the transitional aspect of the card.


	2. Present: The Moon

(Please forgive my unreferenced sketchy eagles ;) )

Traditionally the Moon card (these are all loosely based on the Rider-Waite-Smith deck) contains the Moon itself (of course), two dogs, two towers, and a crayfish. (also some dew that... is descending from the moon, which didn't get included). 

I find Wikipedia's info (which is quoting Waite) somewhat difficult to interpret, but the bits about reflected light and staying still, fears, and potential calm seemed potentially applicable to circumstances after Ramius is in America. Additionally, with the U.S.S.R. and the U.S. as major presences in the movie, I couldn't resist a space race reference!

The moon itself, of course, is present, in waning gibbous phase, after full (I did not choose to give it the traditional face). The two dogs have been translated to two eagles, a symbol of the U.S, and a symbol harking back to Imperial Russia--the supposedly Russian one holds a sheaf of grain, my accidental twist on/mix-up with the fasces that appears in a number of U.S. symbols, and could be considered to reference several other things--the intended fasces are also a symbol of fascism, and grain in the U.S.S.R. was involved in multiple tragedies (Holodomor and its like; other famines) and perhaps a few comedies of errors (Khrushchev's corn plan, for instance). 

The fish they are apparently not really fighting over is intended to be some fish that Ramius would have caught in Lithuania, on a fishing boat, perhaps herring? <strike>but I didn't properly reference the fish under the time constraints of a pinch hit</strike>

And the towers have morphed into a loosely Saturn V-inspired rocket, whether for peaceful or sinister purposes it is unclear, and a loose take on the Duga anti-missile radar array, near Chernobyl. Are they in opposition to each other? Perhaps.

The Waite description also reminds me of Plato's Cave, which might not feel wholly unrelatable for the Red October crew. But forming a relationship will involve facing those fears, if perhaps not with active resistance. In any case, our heroes are good at waiting.


	3. Hidden Influences: Four of Swords

The Four of Swords is said to represent things like solitude, hermitage, and singularity of focus.

Some liberty was taken with the concept of swords (more yet to be taken with wands), as here the one by the bed is represented by an actual sword, but the others are missiles. This is a loose take, with additional artistic liberties taken, on Ramius's bunk (with a light of unknown authenticity above) with a cutaway to a missile compartment, supplying the other three "swords". 

Echoing the previous card, the Moon, this suggests that withdrawal from their busy life is needed in this season, and solitude, to begin the work of recovery from the ordeals of life as an officer in the U.S.S.R., and even just a stressful mission. Which is an influence hiding in plain sight, perhaps. Obvious, but neglected.


	4. Querent: Ten of Wands

The fourth card is an insight about the querent, and the Ten of Wands is about trying to find balance amidst challenges and even over commitment. Sounds like Jack Ryan!

A great deal of liberty is taken here with the concept of wand, extending it to almost anything linear, and perhaps unusually, the arrangement is based on a pentagram/pentacle... which of course is a different suite. 

With the number at the bottom, the steeper "northeast" diagonal of the star, reaching to the top of the card, is a branch, perhaps even a hiking stick, invoking nature. The shallower "northeast" diagonal is a power cord with the outer insulation stripped from the wires at the end. The steep "northwest" diagonal is meant to be a laser beam, and the shallower one is a rope, as one might see on an older ship... The horizontal suggests a single wire from an abacus, for counting. These do not necessarily directly pertain to Jack Ryan, but the mixture of traditional and new circumscribes the world in which he lives. (I expect Ramius would have something to say about ropes, on ships, at least in stories!)

The bottom-most shorter "wand" outside the wire is a cigarette, which of course served as a gesture of peace and friendship once Ryan had boarded the _Red October_

Pointing northeast is a pen, an age old emblem of the writer's trade, and suggestive of the old proverb "the pen is mightier than the sword", for diplomatic solutions and the like.

To the northwest is the antenna of a small radio, standing in for many of its kindred used to communicate throughout the film. 

Slightly south of east is a string of binary, chosen entirely at random for a vaguely pleasing series of numbers, and opposite it is what is intended to be a vacuum tube, used in early computers, which were often used in intelligence work. But it is apparently oddly shaped for one. (see note at beginning of work about references) Computers were nowhere near as ubiquitous as today, but were certainly seeing some widespread use, e.g. the way one on interprets the caterpillar drive according to the origin of its program.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> <strike>this card also sounds like me, by the way. X)</strike>


	5. The Attitude of Others: Six of Cups

I borrowed the idea of plants or flowers in the cups from the Rider-Waite-Smith rendition, but I did a quite different, very domestic take on the Six of Cups, representing innocence, nostalgia, and love.

The cups are quite ordinary cups, in a kitchen window, used as herb planters, and in one case, a presently empty vase (I failed to decide what flower to put in there, actually).

In the macreme hanger is supposed to be mint, a tenacious herb known for spreading ruthlessly through the garden. Perhaps it represents resilience. 

In a holder in the upper half of the window are a feathery Apiaceae with a bloom, probably cumin, though usually grown for its seeds, and a carpet of fenugreek leaves (aka methi). These spices and the fenugreek leaves as a herb are frequently used in Indian cooking; since Marko Ramius references the Bhagavad Gita, I thought he might have taken an interest in Indian food, too!

From left to right, the plants at the bottom are cilantro/coriander, and dill (the third cup is empty, and probably used as a makeshift vase but, again, I couldn't pick out an appropriate flower. Sunflower might work, though--sunflowers are native to the U.S., have seen heavy adoption in Eastern Europe as a crop and source for culinary oil, and suit the theme of innocence). Dill is something I associate with Russian cooking, but cilantro, as far as the U.S.S.R., might be best known in the Caucasus region, including the country Georgia (which is where Stalin was originally from--whether that has any bearing on its presence you can decide). 

As for why this turned up in the spread as the attitude of others, well...

* * *

Bonus: Two songs in Russian that relate a bit to the nostalgic theme, specifically re the USSR: [ ДДТ's "Рожденный в СССР"](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0MySnVNRMwE) (Born in the USSR) and [ Ундервуд's "Очень Хочется в Советский Союз"](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xiWhryZytqA) (roughly, "really want to [be] in the Soviet Union")

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Me, however? I struggle to keep mint alive.
> 
> СССР is the Cyrillic equivalent of USSR, the initialism abbreviating the country's name (which is, in fact, pretty well translated as "Union of Soviet Socialist Republics")  
Советский Союз is how "Soviet Union" is written in Russian


	6. What to Do: The Sun

The Rider-Waite-Smith take on The Sun involves sunflowers, a child on a white horse with a red banner (yadda yadda blood of renewal) and, naturally, the sun. In this Sun card, not many of those elements remain. 

The Sun is there, rendered in a semi-realistic style, complete with coronal flares, sunspots, and coronal texture. 

And the red banner, although it is not colored here, remains, in the guise of a road. The pavement texture is inspired by [this photo](https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Hiroshima_aftermath.jpg) of the aftermath of the bombing of Hiroshima ("[the sun has come to earth](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qC_KdZ1i63k)", indeed), an invocation of the hazards of the nuclear missiles carried on _Red October_ and indeed much of the conflict of the Cold War. 

Had I felt more capable of drawing one, or been making these via photo manipulation, I might have translated the infant to perhaps a fawn from the Chernobyl Exclusion Zone--innocence in the face of horribly realized knowledge.

These somewhat morbid elements aside, the meaning of the Sun card actually carries on the innocence from the Six of Cups, but as renewal, as well as attained knowledge. I included a castle in the distance, as a place of refuge, and a representation of fantasies. 

As a recommendation for action, removing themselves from the enormous baggage of the Cold War inasmuch as possible, recalling that there is still human kindness and a drive for freedom and the "pursuit of [mutual] happiness" in the world, seems likely to be helpful, and if the kitchen window of the previous card exists, that might be a step on the way.


	7. Outcome: Five of Coins, Reversed

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> n.b. for viewing clarity, the sketch is not in the reversed (upside down) orientation.

Five of Coins/Pentacles, reversed, indicates the slow return of hope, which represents a satisfying arc throughout the spread from the taut transition of the past, through the necessity of reflection and balance towards innocence, to "renewal of faith"

I retained the stained glass window aspect of the Rider-Waite-Smith rendition only semi-intentionally, and I could also see actual coin designs rather than pentacles being inserted into the circles, had I looked up some. But here they decorate a tree, which seems evocative of Christmas (not celebrated and most festivities transposed over to New Year's in the USSR). There are plenty of secular Christmas tales (some can be found on Trans Siberian Orchestra holiday albums, or simply take _A Christmas Carol_) that work with the reversed sense of this card. More in keeping with the non-reversed sense, putting coins on a tree could also reflect either being besieged by magpies or storing up coins as a squirrel might hide away nuts...

Paired with the emblem of the suit I did not depict people, but a nook with a bell, borrowing the "bell=urgency" from the traditional card, but evoking a tale from my youth I dimly remembered, "The Bell of Atri"--anyone was to be able to ring the bell in the story for aid. Eventually that bell's rope was worn out and replaced with some sort of grass or hay which appealed to a donkey(?) an old soldier had abandoned. The normal meaning of Five of Coins is near that sort of desperation.

However, bells are also an emblem of joy...

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> (and, since I've invoked Christmas already, "I Heard the Bells on Christmas Day", anyone?)

**Author's Note:**

> I knew Death would be a part of the spread; the Sun and the Moon came up when I used an online tool to draw a different spread I didn't end up using, and the Minor Arcana were selected through skimming descriptions and picking some that seemed fitting.


End file.
